I feel I need to explain my point of view on this distasteful situation. As I mentioned in my editor’s note:

I am at great pain to publish this article. I have always had great regard for Raza Rumi and Najam Sethi.  This interview with Ahmed Lidhanvi Deobandi has no news value whatsoever. It does not cross-question any of the claims of a known terrorist. Therefore it can only be seen as humanizing and promotion of terrorism. The claims by the terror leader are dissected below. The media in Pakistan led by Mr. Sethi should be calling for enforcing the ban on hate groups rather than promoting them. How can the Shia or Sunni Brelvi or Christians or minorities in Pakistan negotiate or have dialogue with those Takfiri Deobandi militants (accounting for less than 1 percent of the population) who consider their religious duty to raise mobs with kafir kafir slogan burn their homes and kill them? Why are these Takfiri Militant proxies of the Pakistan Army protected by the “liberal media”? How can Mr. Sethi and Mr. Rumi not see a distinction between all religions claiming their’s is the only path to heaven and hateful mobs organized to kill under the slogan of kafir kafir?

This is not personal about Mr. Sethi or Mr. Rumi. It is extremely disheartening to project the head of  Shia genocide machine, Sipah Sahaba (aka ASWJ or LEJ) leader in their magazine and not ask him any hard questions. All this on the heals of two major blasts in Quetta killing over a hundred each, the Abbas town blast in Karachi killing over sixty, as well as maiming hundreds more.

When Mr Sethi. gives a free pass to the hate mongering cleric Ahmed Ludhanvi Deobandi in his TV talk show or in The Friday Times, it is a license for others to do the same. For example, if President Zardari was invited to a diplomatic dinner, everyone lifts their glass to drink to good health, everyone in President Zardari’s entourage will be looking to see if the President lifted the wine glass or the water glass and will behave accordingly.  Since Mr. Sethi carries the mantle of a leading voice of the “liberal” media this casts a dark shadow over the entire media.

Mr. Sethi has accused the PMLN government to be entirely responsible for the Joseph Colony attack on Christians, but gives a free pass to the Sipah e Sahabah ASWJ/LEJ land mafia who actually carried out the attacks and also those in the Deep State who continue to harbour and protect Jihado-sectarian Deobandi militants. It raises serious questions. Why is Mr. Sethi giving a free pass to the Army proxies? https://lubpak.com/archives/tag/najam-sethi

He was prepared to take on Bennazir Bhutto, he is prepared to take on PMLN, but no hard questions for radical Islamist mullah hate machine AhmedLudhanvi Deobandi. No reference in the interview is made to the Army which has been the chief patron of these hate organizations.

Another relevant question is: why is Mr. Sethi running the loss making magazine The Friday Times? The business model makes no sense. Is it simply a platform to attack politicians and give a free pass to Army and its Jihadist proxies? What are the funding sources for these loss making businesses? Could it be the coffers of  Pakistan Government, who have buckled under pressure from the powerful ISI to fund Jinnah Institute, where one may find many such liberal hands in the cookie jar. The more they eat these cookies, the more they seem to peddle the pro-establishment narrative.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010/06/17/story_17-6-2010_pg3_2

http://sherryrehman.com/?p=388

I would be happy to disclose the funding of LUBP  and here it is, we are all citizen journalists, no one is paid, the editor has the honor to pay for domain name and hosting. No one is paying LUBP so no one can tell LUBP whom to give a free pass. I would very much  like for The Friday Times to come clean on who is paying for this loss making business? Who is paying for the Jinnah institute?  So that we could see who wants murderers and hate mongers projected and given a free pass!

When a pro-establishment media outlet such as daily Ummat or daily Jang is eulogizing murderers we know these people are corrupt and pro-Islamofacist.  So we skip the page and move on. When Raza Rumi and Najam Sethi, the avowed champions of liberal values and human rights, do it, it is more alarming, their readers will absorb perhaps eight or nine great logical open minded arguments and explanations.  By the time the public is consuming argument number nine or they are conditioned to accept the narrative of these very smart analysts, it is at this time the analyst will introduce and sell a falsehood.  All critical thinkers should pause and wonder.

We will never be able to correct the nastier elements of Pakistani journalism unless we first fix the standard bearers of liberal discourse. A wolf you can see, a wolf in sheep’s clothing is more dangerous.